


His Protector

by TrippinOverMyFandoms



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Cold, Cuddles, Cuddling, Fluff, Gay Stuff, M/M, Morning cuddles 2.0, Rain, Things left unsaid, Two Shot, a relationship that needs talking about, i took advantage of that, ive said to much, oliver has long hair, oliver mumbles, snuggles, undressing but its not nsfw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-10-10 02:05:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17416931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrippinOverMyFandoms/pseuds/TrippinOverMyFandoms
Summary: With Fyers gone, Oliver, Slade and Shado are beginning to slowly relax on Lian Yu. Slade, however, is filled with worry when Oliver takes far too long on a hunting trip. When Oliver finally returns looking like death had walked right into their front door, Slade will do whatever it takes to protect him.(this sounds really extreme but it's just slade being a mother-hen)





	1. Chapter 1

Ever since they had gotten rid of Fyers and his men two months ago, Slade had begun trusting Oliver to go out hunting alone. 

In the beginning he was cautious. The kid was so inexperienced when it came to stealth that Slade would never let him go alone or even at all. Either Slade went and left Oliver behind or, if he decided to risk that Oliver wouldn't possibly give them away by talking as much as he does, he'd bring the blonde with him. Even though Fyers was dead and most of his men as well, the trio was still careful that there might still be a few stragglers left alive. That and Oliver always ran the risk of scaring off a hunt with his loud mouth. Sometimes Slade would show him a few techniques if they had time. More often than not they wouldn't though, especially in the evenings. Yet in the mornings when they had the entire day ahead of them, Slade would teach Oliver the ins and outs of various traps if he felt like it.

So the past couple of days that the trio needed food, Oliver had volunteered as usual and Slade let him go this time around. He felt Oliver had come far enough in his general training that it was safe enough to let Oliver go alone while he and Shado sparred. It proved useful when one day he brought back a few rabbits, another he brought back a handful of birds, and the previous afternoon he had managed to get a large stag. The kid was beginning to pull his own weight.

Once again Oliver had offered himself up as the evening's hunter.

Deep down something felt of to Slade. Maybe it was the years of taking such cation in ASIS but something didn't sit well with him when Oliver had asked that evening.

"Slade? Did you hear me?" Oliver had asked when Slade seemed to dead pan, wondering if he should trust his gut or actually let him go.

"Yeah, go. It's fine. Just bring something back." He had attempted a usually jab at Oliver in hopes of banishing the feeling but it didn't do much good. Oliver had just nodded, picked up his bow and quiver, and left.

Throughout what was left of the day, Slade pushed himself through harsh workouts, trying another method push away the feeling. It didn't work. Not after winning a two out of three practice fight with Shado. Not after endless pull ups. Not even after sharpening his blade collection or checking the ammunition in his guns. The hours seemed to go by slow and it felt as if Oliver had been gone for a century. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't worried.

Oliver was usually back by now. That's what made it worse. It was getting dark and as the sun went down it got colder. Much colder.

Slade could feel Shado's eyes on him as she watched him closely. She had this weird sixth sense for picking up on the boys' emotions. Which was odd since they hadn't known each other long. Maybe that just meant he and Oliver were predictable. 

"Stop worrying. He'll be fine. He's strong and can jangle himself." She had said after a long period of silence as she caught Slade gazing out the fuselage's entrance. She says it to help reassure him, put him on less of an edge. "Oliver should be back any minuet now and you can gut whatever he brings back." Slade had just scowled in response, slightly embarrassed that she had caught him rather than being the one to prepare their dinner. He was used to that by now.

Slade couldn't deny that Oliver had grown on him. So much so he worried in situations like now. Which was weird when he thought about it because he thought Oliver was insufferable when they first met. 

The pacing didn't start until it was completely dark. Back and fourth back and fourth back and fourth. Shado watched him and she was pretty sure he would end up wearing a groove in the floor from it. 

Then the rain had started. It began light, a few sprinkles here and there. Slade had poked outside to hopefully spot Oliver in the tree line and when he felt the first cold drop his heart skipped a beat. It was beginning to rain and Oliver was so where to be found. If he had a pack of cigarettes they'd all be gone by now due to he had become so anxious. 

The rain picked up. The thunder arrived and got louder with each passing minuet and lighting had come with it. Slade hoped that Oliver hadn't been paralyzed with fear from PTSD if he hadn't been captured by one of the left over merchs.

It seemed like forever before Oliver eventually stumbled into the fuselage. Shoulders hunched close to his body, arms wrapped as tightly as they could around his violently shivering form, long and wet blonde hair plastered to his forehead, clothes clinging to his body from being soaked with rain, caked in mud from knees to boots. With him he carried two rabbits. Slade wasn't concerned about the catch though. 

"Oliver." Slade says, voice laced with concern and barely audible over the pounding rain outside. "Come here." He takes the kid's hand and leads him further inside, closer to the fire he and Shado had started earlier. On their way past, Shado pried the two rabbits from Oliver's white knuckled grip, forgetting that she told Slade he'd be the one to prepare dinner. 

"I'm sorry Slade." Oliver starts, almost stuttering due to all the shivering, "I meant to be back. I really did. But then it started raining, really bad and really hard but I think you noticed that here. But then I got stuck in some really thick brush because it was so dark. After that I got really bad stuck in the mud and then tripped trying to get out. I got a little lost and it was so cold- what are you doing?" His rambles are cut off by Slade who had begun ridding Oliver of his soaking wet clothes. 

"Shut up kid, you don't have to apologize." He starts with Oliver's coat which isn't doing any good for anything except holding in more cold rain. He was hoping the shirt underneath wasn't soaked but as he threw the coat on the floor he found it was just as wet. 

Oliver was sure the cold was making him hallucinate. Slade was hardly never that... easy on him. He was also sort of stunned that Slade was undressing him but he was so cold and so tired he didn't have much energy to protest. 

Slade found that after he removed Oliver's shirt that even his skin was wet. Oliver could feel the heat from Slade's own body and teetered forward trying to warm up. His skin was almost as cold as ice against Slade's touch. 

By the time Oliver was down to just his underwear, shaking like a leaf in the harsh fall winds, relying on Slade to make sure he didn't fall, Slade wondered why he had completely undressed Oliver other than this weird instinct to take care of him. Oliver could possibly have the beginnings of hypothermia and the mere thought of it made Slade's heart skip a beat. Maybe he cared about Oliver more than he thought.

If Oliver ran the risk of dying from hypothermia he had to abandon that train of thought. Immediately Slade began removing his own clothes and placed them on Oliver. They were already warm from him just wearing them and he had another set of clothes laying around somewhere he could put on after Oliver was taken care of. Perks of living in the plane's wreckage, he had more than one set of clothes.

Once Oliver was dressed fully again, Slade pulls him close to him, hoping body heat would help jumpstart the process of warming the younger man up as he maneuvered Oliver to his own cot. Gently he laid the trembling man down and began covering him with any available blanket like material that they had lying around. Soon enough Oliver the only visible part of Oliver was his head, due to both the amount of blankets Slade had piled on him and Oliver already snuggling into the warm abyss. 

Slade himself begins to feel the nights chill as he examined his work that was the mummified Oliver Queen. He knows he needs to hunt down clothes before he's next. It's not a hard search though and soon enough he's dressed again.

Slade hates to leave Oliver alone and cold but he feels he should probably help Shado with the rabbits so that all three of them can eat, especially Oliver who deserves it more than them between his current state and the lengths he went through to bring it back. 

"How is he?" Shado asks when she notices Slade heading her way. She's picked up on just how worried Slade is about Oliver just by the look on his face and the way he's carrying himself. That and how he keeps casting glances over his shoulder at Oliver as he sits down on the opposite side of the fire from her to help roast the rabbits. She decides any joke about how much of a mother hen Slade is will have to wait until Oliver's conditions is better and Slade isn't so on edge. 

"He'll be fine. He's strong. Like you said." The statement was more to reassure himself rather than her. She knew how capable Oliver was at surviving. She had more patience with him than Slade had in the beginning. Maybe if he had taken the time to actually teach him more things. Maybe if he hadn't given up so quickly. Maybe Oliver wouldn't be freezing to death. 

No, he couldn't think that way. The blame game was no way to go about things. He needed to focus on the rabbit he was cooking.

Minuets pass and it's cooked enough that it won't hurt them if they eat the small animals. Slade takes some of the meat off and grabs a canteen of water before heading back over to Oliver. He'd eat later, the kid was more important. 

Slade knelt down next to the cot where Oliver was wrapped tightly in all the blankets. He was clearly asleep, judging by the slow rising and falling of his chest, but he needed food and water in his system. So Slade gently pushed on the spot where he was pretty sure Oliver's shoulder was located. Oliver groaned in response and squeezed his eyes shut tighter. The Australian sighed and placed a hand, warm from being so close to the fire, against the younger man's face. "Kid, you need to eat something." Slade says, not loudly but just enough that he wasn't whispering and Oliver could hear him clearly. "You can go back to sleep after you've eaten something. I promise." 

The next fifteen or so minutes were filled with Slade holding Oliver again this body and helping him eat and drink. In return Oliver made Slade eat two, somehow in his dazed and still half asleep state he figured out that Slade wasn't going to even touch food until he had finished. It took convincing but Oliver pulled the "ill eat if you will" and it worked. 

Though Slade couldn't actually focus that much on eating as he took care of Oliver. He noticed the younger man wasn't as cold as he had been but he was still shivering slightly. 

Slade accepts his fate when he realizes Oliver has fallen asleep on him. The kid's head in nuzzled into Slade's chest and all Slade can do is hold him. 

Carefully, oh so carefully, Slade moves to lay Oliver back on the cot but Oliver grabs hold of the Australian's shirt and has a white knuckle grip, an unconscious signal that he doesn't want the older man to leave him. So instead Slade tries to lay down himself, knowing he needs sleep too though not sure how much of it he'll get guarding Oliver. He's then laying on his back with Oliver snuggled into his side, head laying on his chest. Oliver is apparently half awake again from the movement and throws a few of the many makeshift blankets over Slade so that they can share.

As Oliver falls asleep again Slade watches over him. It's hours before he falls asleep himself but he's too busy worrying. Too busy realizing how close he's gotten to Oliver. He now knows that if Oliver died he wouldn't know what to do with himself. He hasn't felt like this in years and he's not sure if he likes it or not.

But that's another set of thoughts he puts on the back burner in trade for making sure Oliver is content. 

And Slade is perfectly happy with being Oliver's protecter, that much he knows.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the night before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY got this second part up. I didn't mean to take this long
> 
> Sorry if there's a lot of spelling and grammatical errors. I wrote this on my phone at 11pm and it's now 12pm (also not as long as I wanted but oh well) and I'll fix this and the first part tomorrow.

His eyes flutter open though only momentarily. Small bits of sunlight had found their way to his vision causing a pain right behind his brows, causing him to squeeze his lids shut. 

He couldn't process very much in his half awake state, too exhausted to bother putting effort into waking up - which seemed pointless to him because he was so comfortable and there wasn't anyone nagging at him to get out of bed. 

All he was capable of registering was that he was warm, he was comfortable, and it was quiet.

The silence wasn't deafening, it was actually calming, like an early morning in his room at home in Star City were everyone in the house had yet to wake up. The occasional and faint creak of the house settling being the only sounds. Except on the island it was the occasional breeze and the sound of the ocean if he listened hard enough. 

The sun coming in through the fuselage's opening, though assaulting his eyes, cast warming rays onto him. The heaving clothing he wore and the blankets he was burrowed under adding a nice calming weight on top of him, causing more warmth and his eyes to get heavy again. The body next to him, radiating a slight heat, added to this.

Normally he hated his makeshift bed on Lian Yu but this was different, if he was even in his bed at all. His body lay in just the right position on his side, head rested on a chest, one arm pulled closely to his body and the other draped over the other person. There was also an arm around his side and another wrapped over his abdomen, holding him protectively.

And then Oliver dozes off. Content for the first time in what seems like forever. Truly comfortable and dreading the moment he has to move and start his day. A bliss he never wants to end. He's felt happiness but this feels like a calm joy. Being there, with arms around him, holding him in such a way he feels safe and secure.

Something slight brings him out of his drifted off state. And that's when realization hits him.

The realization that he's laying against someone.

The realization that that someone has their arms around him. 

The realization he's not sleeping alone.

He almost doesn't want to open his eyes. Too afraid of messing up the comfort that seems like a dream. But he's too curious. He always has been. It's almost a flaw of his rather than a positive thing. It's gotten him in trouble one too many times.

Slowly he lifts his lids. It takes a moment for his eyes to adjust to the sun's light but once they do he can't shut them like his impulse tells him to. Instead, he's frozen like a deer in headlights as he stares at the sight before him. 

Slade Wilson. 

No, not just Slade Wilson.

Slade Wilson, the normally stoic, resident bad ass, asleep with his arms around Oliver. 

His heart skips a beat because he's pretty sure he's never seen Slade asleep before (not to mention Slade is - dare he think it - actually really attractive like this). Normally Slade is the one to wake Oliver up in the mornings. Yet here they were. So, so close. It's actually the closest Oliver has probably ever been to Slade. He can see his features so clearly. 

His skin doesn't look so dark this close. Which is odd to Oliver but he's too tired to figure out how things work. He can spot the beginnings of frown lines yet more obvious laugh lines. 

That's another thing, he's never heard Slade laugh before. Truly laugh and not in sarcasm or pity, but instead one in humor or joy. He can only imagine what that sounds like.

Oliver's gaze goes from Slade's face to his chests, where his own head still rests, and down to where he assumes their arms are. He can't see them because of the blankets but he makes a guess based on the lump under the covers. 

As he gazes, the events of the night before slowly come back to him. The hunting trip, the rain, the cold, the mud, the dark and getting lost, his heart rate quickens remembering how helpless he felt wandering in the dark forest trying to find his way back. Dreading the return knowing Slade would be mad for him being so late and getting lost in the first place.

But as he continues to think, he remembers the expression Slade wore when he finally stumbled into the fuselage. Instead of anger and irritation there was worry and concern. 

The rest is a blur and he partly remembers Slade undressing him. Again his heart skips and his mind races to fill in the blanks. It's almost worse than waking up wasted with holes in his memory wondering what happened the night before. 

Though as he looks down at his own body he's fully clothed. In Slade's clothes in fact. He can't quite remember what happened to its full extent but he lets his imagination fill in the blanks. 

He must be really stupid to think Slade would take advantage of him. 

He blamed it on still being exhausted.

Then the chest his head is rested on moves slightly and a quiet groan follows. Oliver figures his change in breathing must have woken up Slade. He was always such a light sleeper. He could hear a trained ninja assassin creeping up on them in a thunderstorm and be able to kill the said assassin before anyone else knew what was going on. 

Oliver's gaze goes up to Slade's face, seeing if it was just a movement or if he was indeed awake. Blue eyes are met with brown. Being so close Slade looks tired but thinking he has to be up. 

"Hey kid." It's barely above a whisper but being so close Oliver can hear him. He doesn't move when the arm around his side shifts so Slade's hand is combing through his tangled blonde hair that more than desperately needed to be cut. 

"Hey." Oliver whispers back, already almost falling back asleep just from the stimulation his scalp was receiving, causing his whole body to feel tingly, and his eyes flutter a bit. There's a low chuckle from Slade and Oliver is assuming it's because of the shiver that leaves his own body from the feeling.

Once again he's brought back to a moment of bliss. Euphoria even perhaps. 

He knows this will be something they'll have to talk about, due to the fact that before today Slade was still beating his ass to the ground during training and barely looking in his direction, but right now none of that mattered. In the moment it was almost as if they've always been like this. Maybe his soul was just more than ready to be this close to Slade. 

A few more moments of Slade running his fingers through Oliver's hair and they're interrupted by "I see you two snuggle bugs are finally awake." Shado. Right, how could Oliver forget her. Oh yeah, he was half asleep and the fingers running over his scalp didn't help in clearing his foggy mind. 

Unfortunately Slade stops and sits up, causing Oliver to slide down to where his head is closer to Slade's hip rather than his chest. It's an awkward position and Oliver doesn't think their relationship is anywhere near it being okay for him to be that low yet. So he sits up himself, begrudgingly of course.

"I was going to ask if you boys slept well but considering its well past noon I don't have too." There's a soft smile on her lips as she sets to work removing the feathers of four birds she's caught, as if this is the most normal thing in the world for them. 

Oliver is about to stand and help when Slade beats him to it, giving Oliver a quick peck on the cheek before leaving him which completely takes the blonde off guard.

Yeah. They were going to have to talk about this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like to think that Shado is their #1 shipper. Of course Thea and Sara and everyone else close to them love them together but Shado saw it happen first (if not encouraged it in most of my AUs)
> 
> Also I would need a whole story about them working out their feelings for each other but after a date night short (coming soon) I'll unpack their unsaid feelings.


End file.
